Ryan Streeter
This has to matter for something: 33 Republicans elected to Congress on Nov. 2 are business owners. The New York Times profiles all of them today.
Robert Schilling, from IL's 17th, has gotten some press for operating Saint Giuseppe’s Heavenly Pizza. But his 32 business-owing colleagues also bring with them an array of interesting enterprises. Here's a sample:
Austin Scott, Georgia’s 8th District: owns the Southern Group, an independent employee benefits insurance agency in Tipton that employs one other person.
Bill Huizenga, Michigan’s 2nd District: co-owner of Huizenga Gravel Co., a second-generation family business with three employees. While owner, Mr. Huizenga worked full-time as a Congressional aide, and later served in Michigan’s House of Representatives.
Michael Grimm, New York’s 13th District: after a career that alternated between Wall Street and the F.B.I., opened a health-food restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in 2007, and ran it until he sold it in 2009. He is also co-founder and chief executive of Austin Refuel, which planned to recycle cooking oil in central Texas and convert it into diesel fuel but now distributes biodiesel manufactured by others.
Jim Renacci, Ohio’s 16th District: part-owner and general manager of the Columbus Destroyers, an Arena Football league franchise. Before that, Mr. Renacci developed and ran a chain of nursing homes, and he has also invested in distressed companies. He has had a hand in up to 60 different companies over 30 years, according to a campaign aide.
Rick Crawford, Arkansas’s 1st District: founded and operates AgWatch Network, which syndicates agriculture news programs to 49 radio stations.
Ron Johnson, Wisconsin: co-founded and co-owns Pacur, a specialty polyester and plastics manufacturer.
Jeff Denham, California’s 19th District: operates Denham Plastics, a company with $4 million in annual revenue and 10 employees that manufactures agricultural shipping containers. The idea for the business sprang from Mr. Denham’s previous company, a salad-bagging enterprise. He also owns an almond ranch with two employees.
Mike Pompeo, Kansas’s 4th District: co-founded, in 1997, Thayer Aerospace, an aircraft manufacturing subcontractor in Wichita that grew to nearly 500 employees when he sold the firm to a private equity fund in 2006. A decision to open a manufacturing facility in Mexico became an issue in both Mr. Pompeo’s primary campaign and the general election.
Plastics, gravel, agricultural radio programming, insurance, health foods and biofuels...and arena football. And aerospace.
These folks are good for America. And let's hope that their election to Congress is also good for America. We'll be watching how they vote, and what they spend their time focusing on.
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